6
REMARKS
○ The pandemic worsened global
inequality. Now some measures meant
to help are widening the gulf○ By Alessandra Migliaccio
and Vernon SilverIt’s early evening on Via del Pellegrino, a narrow cobblestone
street in the heart of ancient Rome, and Orsola Polimeno
is taking delivery of a pair of bright-orange-detailed folding
bicycles. The matching bikes will be a pleasure to ride, she
says, but the purchase is even sweeter, because the €1,
($1,775) she’s spending will net her a government check for
€900. The payout comes thanks to a provision in Italy’s
Covid-19 recovery plan that offers 60% cash back to buy-
ers of greener transport such as bicycles, electric scooters,
even Segways and hoverboards.
The rebate goes up to €500 per person, corresponding to
the purchase of a bike costing €833. That means to take fulladvantage you’d have to be the sort of Italian who has that
kind of money sitting around. Case in point: Polimeno and
her husband selected his-and-hers folding models because
they’d fit into their vacation home on the coast of Tuscany.
“I’d been planning to buy bikes to get around at the beach,”
she says. “The subsidy was an opportunity I had to jump at.”
Like many Covid-relief provisions around the globe—
trillions of dollars for everything from modest rebates
on restaurant meals to tax breaks worth millions to
megacorporations—the bike bailout benefits lots of folks who
aren’t the most in need. It even helps widen income gaps that
the outbreak has exposed and exacerbated.
Few would argue that nudging people away from cars is
bad, and the bike benefit is available to everyone. But the real-
ity is that people of more modest means—frequently dependent
on government handouts—lack the cash for an €800 bike, even
with a 60% discount. “Programs like the bike bonus or elec-
tric car incentives are worth more if you spend a lot, so they
tend to encourage wealthier people to buy that Tesla or fancy
bike,” says Rosamaria Bitetti, an economist at Luiss University
in Rome. “If you don’t have the money, it’s not going to help
you much, so these programs tend to increase inequality.”